JESUS SPIT ON HIM

“Some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him” (Mark 8:22, NLT).

The Bible is filled with anonymous heroes, nameless servants of the Lord who in quiet, faithful service help others have an encounter with God or receive a miracle. Consider the young woman who told the wife of Naaman, the leprous general of the Syrian army, about Elisha and the miracles God was doing through him (see 2 Kings 5). And then there was the little boy who willingly gave up his lunch so that Jesus could take the five loaves of bread and two fish and miraculously feed five thousand men and at least that many women and children (John 6:9). We don’t know the names of these servants but they are truly heroes of the faith because of their willingness to serve.

“Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, ‘Can you see anything now?’” (verse 23).

“Some people” persistently asked, even begged, and Jesus responded to their repeated calls for help by taking the man by the hand and leading him out of the village. This is a beautiful picture of salvation and God’s continuing care for us as we grow in Him. 

Jesus takes us by the hand and leads us away from the sinfulness of our past — which is represented by the village. Our responsibility is to keep our hand in His. One night when I was in treatment for throat cancer, I asked the Lord what I should do. I was sick and tired, and anxiety and fear were trying to gain access. As clearly as I have ever heard Him speak, in a very loving and fatherly voice He said, “Put your hand in Mine!” Immediately I knew my heavenly Father was present and He had everything under control. Jesus takes us by the hand and leads us into our future!

What happened next to the blind man is very unorthodox. Jesus spit on the man’s eyes! Yes, I did say “He spit”! In the original language (are you ready for this?) the word used here means “to spit.”

If a preacher were to do this today, he could be arrested for possibly spreading a disease. Then he would be vilified on CNN by Piers Morgan for being an absolutely disgusting human being who had the audacity to propagate Christianity by spitting.

 

Why did Jesus spit on the man’s eyes? I don’t really know but He had done this on two other occasions. Once He spit on the ground, mixed some dirt with His spit, put the mud on a blind man’s eyes — and the man was healed (John 9:6)! The other time a deaf man who could not speak clearly was brought to Him. Jesus spit on His fingers, touched the man’s tongue and he was healed (Mark 7:33). Could it be that Jesus simply wanted to establish the fact that what was going to happen was out of the ordinary, that this was a divine intervention that was beyond any rational explanation? The unregenerate mind is incapable of fully grasping the love and grace of God!

In all fairness, in folk medicine of Bible times it was thought that saliva had medicinal qualities and often was recommended for treatment of eye disease. What Jesus did is shocking to us but it would not have been as shocking to the watching crowd.

“The man looked around. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around’” (verse 24).

Salvation is articulated as “the new birth” (John 3:3). Newborn babies do not see clearly or really know what they are seeing and they don’t talk clearly, either, although that will come in due time. The Bible tells us that newborn Christians are not fully grown up, they are babies! And as babies, they need to be cared for, taught and given the time to grow into maturity. People looked like trees to the healed man because his eyes had not been working before and it would take time for them to be trained to focus and for him to understand what he was seeing.

What is happening here shows the progressive growth of both salvation and healing. We are encouraged to “grow in Christ” (1 Peter 3:18). Most healings are not miracles — miracles are instantaneous but healing is a process.

Jesus said, “They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:18, NKJV). Recovery is a process that occurs over time. “Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly” (verse 25).
 
The Lord does not just grab us at the moment of salvation, cleanse us of sin, and then let us go out to fend for ourselves. He is with us to help us grow into the man or woman He has destined us to be. He is not done with us just because we have been believers for five years or twenty years or even fifty years. He is still leading us by the hand. And He is still putting His hands on our eyes and helping us to see clearly. “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20, NLT).

“Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Don’t go back into the village on your way home’” (verse 26).

Jesus told him, “On your journey home don’t go back to where you were before. Let all of that go. You are a new man now and the old life, the village life, is not for you anymore.”

Following are statements that only you can make. Are you willing?

“Jesus, I need a fresh touch of You in my life. I need to see more clearly; I need to grow in You. Please, Jesus, spit on me!” 

HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD

In the English Standard Version of the Bible, the heading for Romans 12:9-21 is, “Marks of the True Christian.” Paul writes about the distinguishing traits or qualities of those who are followers of Jesus.

These verses are challenging! As I studied this passage for a teaching series, I had to stop and make a phone call. I reached verse 17 in my preparation and the Holy Spirit put me under conviction. “Repay no one evil for evil.”

I called an old friend with whom I had gotten sideways. The last time we had talked I was angry at him and said some things that were wrong. As I studied this teaching by Paul, I realized the Holy Spirit was convicting me about this so I called my friend and apologized for my bad behavior and we repaired our friendship.

I hope you will take the time to slowly read through this passage in Romans 12 and let the Holy Spirit speak to you about continually growing in these important qualities.

Paul begins this teaching with a strong statement about love: “Let love be genuine” (Romans 12:9, ESV). Paul clearly teaches that love cannot be hypocritical; in other words, you cannot wear a mask of love. A mask is something we put on and then take off, and for a believer that is hypocrisy. Our love for everybody in and out of the church cannot be “pretend,” it must be genuine and constant. I am concerned about how flippant some have become with the use of the word love. For some, “I love you” is the new cool statement and there is little regard for what it actually means. For many it is just slang, but as followers of Jesus we are to be honest in what we say and how we say it.

The last statement that Paul makes in this passage has been a struggle for me to understand for years. When I come across one of those passages that is hard to understand, my tendency is to not allow it to hang me up; instead I accept the fact that I don’t understand it and move on. My problem this time, however, was that I had made a commitment to do a teaching series on this passage, so I really sought the Lord. And I dug deep into my library and the collected the wisdom of people a lot smarter than I am. And I’m so glad I did! What I discovered is an incredible statement of victory over evil for every believer.

Verse 19 - “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’’’

In verse 19 Paul makes it clear that if someone does us wrong we are not to return their bad behavior by bad behavior on our part. We are not to hold a grudge against the person. If their behavior was criminal, however, this doesn’t mean that we should not get the authorities involved because, actually, we must! What it does say is that we need to forgive the person for their conduct and let the final reckoning come from God Who promises that He will repay.

Verse 20 - “To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’”

The last part of verse 20 has been the challenge for me: “. . . for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head ”

How am I supposed to reconcile having genuine love with the imagery of pouring burning coals over an enemy’s head? This sounds more like revenge than love!

Two ideas are put forth to explain this unusual statement. The first has to do with judgment day when all will stand before God and be judged for their life and behavior. This position seems to say that our enemies will get their appropriate punishment on that day.

The second thought I think is more plausible and fits better with the context. This position says that when we act out of love by feeding or giving water to our enemy, those acts of goodness will be used by the Holy Spirit to bring that person under conviction. The act of goodness releases the conviction of the Holy Spirit on the person; the act of goodness becomes the pouring on of coals of fire.

In Acts 7 Stephen was stoned for his faith. As he was dying he cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). Standing close to where Stephen died was a young Jewish zealot by the name of Saul who was committed to destroying the Christian church. Stephen’s act of goodness/love began the work of the Holy Spirit in Saul that would be consummated on the road to Damascus. Saul was struck by the power of the Holy Spirit and was marvelously converted. Saul became Paul — who became the greatest apostle the Christian Church has ever had.

If any man understood what it meant to have “coals of fire” poured on his head by an act of goodness, it was the Apostle Paul.

Verse 21 - “Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good” (NLT).

Good conquers evil! Evil wins when we stop doing good and that’s the whole intention of evil . . . to destroy good.

Good trumps evil every time! We may not see that final reckoning right away but it will come because God’s Word declares it so! Paul was proof that good conquers evil.

KNOWING GOD BETTER

“The Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all (over the universe)” (Psalm 103:19).

In 1946, when I was two years old, my parents moved from a tiny town on Vancouver Island to the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Dad had taken a job at one of Canada’s largest lumber mills and Vancouver became my home city. I lived in one of the most beautiful cities in the world until I left for college in California in the fall of 1963.

My parents were both Spirit-filled Christians, commonly known in those days as Pentecostals. After settling in Vancouver, our family began attending the largest Spirit-filled church in Vancouver and according to some reports, the largest Protestant church in the city at that time.  Those were the days when a good-sized evangelical church ran a few hundred people and most Pentecostal churches averaged less than a hundred people. Evangelistic Tabernacle, our home church, had a sanctuary that would seat 1800 and the church was often packed to the doors. It was a true megachurch before the term was ever thought of.

When I was a kid, we did not go to church for one sixty-minute service with a little bit of worship and a brief teaching. Church on Sunday morning was short if it went only two hours and then we were back on Sunday night for an evangelistic service. Tuesday night was prayer meeting at church and Thursday night was Bible study.

My pastor, Ern Baxter, was one of the great preachers of that time and was known to many as “the prince of preachers.” Not only was he the pastor of our church but he often traveled with one of the well-known faith healers of the ’40s and ‘50s, William Branham. Pastor managed the campaigns for Branham and conducted the afternoon Bible teaching sessions. In those days it was not unusual for the healing campaigns to have day services where the teaching was on faith and divine healing. The focus of most of the evening meetings was prayer for the sick and miracles. The campaigns would sometimes last for weeks, with services every day, and were held in large auditoriums or tents that would seat 5,000 to 10,000. It was a very different time in the church in the U.S. and Canada.

It was under Ern Baxter’s ministry that I received Christ as my savior at the age of five. When I was eleven I went with my older brother to our church camp and there, along with many of my friends, I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If I remember the night at camp correctly, it was Ern Baxter who laid hands on me just before I began to praise God in a heavenly language. I think it is fair to say that I have a spiritual connection with this man.

Baxter left our church when I was in my early teens and while I heard about him from time to time after that, I never had direct contact with him again. A couple of weeks ago I came across one of his sermons on the Internet. Entitled “Thy Kingdom Come,” the sermon was preached in 1975. I must say that it is an incredible message and as I read through it, one of Baxter’s statements really struck me. Perhaps I found the statement so profound because over the last year I have been studying on how to know God better. My study began with J.I. Packer's very powerful book “Knowing God” (which I think, outside of the Bible, is one of the most impactful books I have ever read). When I read Ern Baxter’s concise statement about the supremacy of God, I was struck with the simple profundity of it. I copied his statement from the sermon so that I could ponder it, and the more I read it the more profound I find it.

I decided to take a different approach to the blog this week and I am sharing the statement my former pastor made. I hope you will take time to reflect on it.

"The Bible tries to tell us in simple language of the ultimacy of God. There is none before Him. There is none beside Him. He takes orders from none. He was created by none. He is Life—Self Existent. There is nothing in Him that should be out of Him. Nothing out of Him that should be in Him. He remembers nothing because He's forgotten nothing. He learns nothing because there is nothing He does not know. He does not need to know because He holds all truth simultaneously. He is the God of the Eternal Now. He can look at human history from the beginning or the end or the middle—for all things are known to Him."

                                                                                                   (Ern Baxter)

“The Lord sits enthroned as King forever (over the ages)” (Psalm 29:10).

THE LONG MARCH

 In 1934 China was in the midst of civil war. Two ideologies were fighting to control the future of this great nation. On one side were the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek, and opposing them were the Communists with a rising leader by the name of Mao Tse-Tung. In late 1934 the Red Army attempted to break free from the encircling army of the Nationalists and escape from the south of China by marching to the west and then north to a more friendly area of the country.

In October 1934, the Red Army, numbering about 100,000 soldiers, broke free of the Nationalists and began a yearlong trek that would later be called the Long March. In the next twelve months the Army covered nearly 8000 miles over some of the most difficult terrain in China that included mountain ranges, swamps, rivers and deserts. They were continually attacked by Nationalist forces and of the 100,000 soldiers that began the Long March, approximately only 20,000 made it to the desired goal.

The Long March is a picture of a tenacious desire to break free from an enemy and achieve a goal. It is an example from history of the journey of faith every follower of Jesus Christ makes. At salvation we are called to be pilgrims (Hebrews 11:13-16). A pilgrim is one traveling in a land that is not his homeland. Our journey is to move through this life free from the encroachments of the enemy, do the work of the Lord, and achieve the goal of being with God in eternity.

Psalm 84 is sometimes called The Song of the Pilgrim and it is filled with powerful insights and promises for us on our “long march.”

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God” (Psalm 84:1-3, ESV).

Every “born-again” person has a “birthed-in” desire and hunger to be in the presence of God; it is a part of our spiritual DNA. Some immediately recognize the spiritual hunger for home and it becomes the driving force, the focal point of their lives. Their lives are ordered by what they understand to be the important things for a pilgrim journey. Others do not understand the desire right away but as they mature in their walk with God, the understanding begins to take hold and they refocus their spiritual lives to be pilgrims on the long march. We sometimes call this revival or renewal.

Some never get the picture clearly. I call these the spiritually illiterate. They get saved but that is just about it. These are not immature Christians, they are illiterate Christians; they have little or no prayer life and spend little or no time in God’s Word. They have crossed the line of faith and nothing more.

Immaturity in a believer gets taken care of over time by prayer, counsel and the Word. Illiterates never change unless they make a conscious choice to do so. They are the most frequent casualties on the long march, as they never learn to walk in faith or to appropriate protection.

^“Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion” (verses 4-5).

The blessing, the favor of God, rests on those who choose to serve and worship the Lord. His blessing is upon those who know that the strength of the Lord is our salvation. The desire to make the journey home to be with Him in His dwelling place is planted in those who love and serve Him. The highways are the ways of God, the ways of the Holy Spirit that lead and point us home to a full life in Him.

^“As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools” (verse 6).

The Valley of Baca is a type of the hard, dry places we sometimes find ourselves in. The promise of God is that when we come to those places on our journey — and we will — as we press into Him, those dry and desolate places will become a place of refreshing springs. The early rain is a picture of “times of refreshing” that come from the Holy Spirit.

This is a powerful promise! In the most unlikely circumstances God will come and the power of His presence will refresh and restore His people on their long march. It is at the points of desolation that we see the great displays of miracle power (see an example in Mark 6:35).

I experienced this when I was going through my valley of cancer two years ago. In some of the hardest moments when I was filled with anxiety and concern, as I worshiped and pressed into God, those moments were turned from dry and desolate to incredible times of refreshing in the presence of God.

The psalmist David wrote about this same truth in Psalm 23. Following his famous statement in verse four about going through the valley of death, David says, “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings” (Psalm 23:5, NLT). The valley of dryness and death becomes the point of God’s rich blessing to the heart set on completing the long march.

 ^“They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion” (Psalm 84:7).

The pilgrim becomes stronger as he proceeds on the journey. “From strength to strength” means that each point of the journey builds strength and stamina for what is ahead. The apostle Paul taught this same truth when he said, “Tribulation brings patience, which brings experience, which brings hope” (see Romans 5:3-4). This is strength building strength and then repeating itself again and again.

Our “long march” was never meant to be just our escape path from this world. The march was always destined to be the journey that takes us to the fulfillment of “The Great Commission” and on into the eternal presence of God.

                                         

RESCUED FROM THE FISCAL CLIFF

Over one-third of Jesus’ teachings recorded in the Gospels are in the form of parables. A very simple definition of a parable is “a truth illustrated through a story.” The best-known parables are The Good Samaritan and The Prodigal Son. One of the more mysterious parables, at least to me, is often entitled “The Unforgiving Debtor” and is found in Matthew 18:21-35. Here’s the story:  

While straightening out his finances, a king was settling accounts with servants who had borrowed money from him. One of his servants owed him ten thousand talents. In order to understand this parable, we must give some perspective to this sum of money. In Bible times, a talent was the equivalent of fifteen years’ salary for a working man. This servant owed his king the equivalent of 150,000 years of salary! In today’s money, at a salary of $500/week, the man would have been $3.9 billion in debt.

How does a person get that far into debt? We are not given much insight into the situation but the servant must have been able to borrow at that level because he had favor with the king. We do not know what he used all the money for, but we know that all of it had been lost. I have to wonder if this guy was an early manifestation of an American congressman! They seem to be able to get the nation in debt like this without much difficulty; they borrow the money and they can’t pay it back!

The king wanted the account settled — in fact, he wanted it paid in full! He ordered that the man and his family be sold, most likely into some form of slavery. Then the king would take whatever payment he could get. I suppose his reasoning was, “Something is better than nothing.”

The servant fell on his knees and begged the king, “Please give me some time and I will pay you back. I will find a way to pay everything I owe!”

The king took pity on the man, forgave him the entire debt, and then released him. What an incredible display of generosity on the part of the king. The huge debt was wiped out in a moment’s time. This is a wonderful picture of grace.

As the forgiven servant left the king’s presence, he must have been giddy and grateful. Who would not be after having had such a huge debt wiped out in a moment by a generous king? The king had literally rescued the man from falling over the “fiscal cliff.”

This same servant later came across a man who owed him “a hundred denarii.” A denarius was one day’s wages for a laborer in Bible days, so in today’s money the man owed him a few thousand dollars.

What did the forgiven servant do? He grabbed the man by the throat and began to choke him, as if to threaten him with death, saying “Pay me what you owe me.” When the man asked him for a little time, the servant refused and had him thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.

Some of the other servants of the king were present and were so disturbed by what they saw the forgiven servant do that they went and told the king.

The king immediately had the servant brought to him and said, “You wicked person! You pled for forgiveness and I extended it to you. Should you not have done the same for the man who owed you? Could you not extend mercy to another as it was extended to you?” Then the servant was delivered to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.

Jesus then made this rather shocking statement to His disciples, “So also My heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

This parable is a wonderful picture of God’s willingness to extend grace to those who reach to Him. We don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it, and we have no way to pay what is necessary to buy it — but He gives it to us freely. This incredible grace is God’s unmerited favor!

So what are we supposed to make of the harsh statement that Jesus makes at the end of the parable? Let me offer one possible explanation. We have been taught the importance of forgiveness. Peter instigated this parable by asking the Lord, “How many times should I forgive one of my idiot brothers?” Thinking he was being really charitable, Peter then suggested, “I think seven times would be a good number and very generous!” Without hesitation the Lord replied, “Not even close, Peter! Try seventy times seven.” (For my Canadian friends, that’s 490.) Then Jesus launched into the telling of the story.

I believe the point Jesus makes at the end of the story is that when believers who are the recipients of forgiveness hold grudges and unforgiveness in their hearts, they are putting themselves in a prison of their own making. Holding on to grudges and unforgiveness is a prison of personal pain and torment. Fear and anxiety find a breeding place in this prison.

 Unforgiveness is not going to cost you your salvation but it will be unpleasant and it will cost you personal freedom!

It is time to break out of the prison of unforgiveness and walk in the joy and freedom of the Lord! The prison break begins with our willingness to forgive and forget!

THE JUSTICE OF HIS JUDGMENT!

Millions of us prayed for many weeks prior to the recent election. We asked God to put the right man in office as our President, but when we awoke on November 7, many believed the wrong man had won the election.

How could this be? What happened here? Were our prayers wasted? No! We prayed that God would put the right man in the highest office in the land and He did just that.

Whoa! Wait just a minute. Am I suggesting that God is a Democrat? No, I am saying that God is neither Democrat nor Republican. I am saying that God has done what He knows is best for the continued unfolding of His plan for the end-times.

American Christians have to face the prophetic future of our nation. Wishful thinking about a bright and rosy future is not going to change God’s mind or the prophetic word God has given about His judgment on this land.

I have not always embraced the idea that America had passed the point of no return. Almost four years ago I had a dream that totally changed my outlook on the times in which we are living. In my dream I was standing behind a man and I heard him say, “Isaiah 47.” I do not recall what I replied, but whatever it was caused the man (perhaps an angel?) to turn toward me and say very clearly a second time, “Isaiah 47.”

Most mornings I do not remember what I dreamed the night before. That day I started my day as usual but I could not shake what I had heard. I sat at my desk and read Isaiah 47, which in my study Bible is captioned, “The Humiliation of Babylon.”

I have struggled with whether or not to write this article, but I finally decided to share some of the main points and let you be the judge. It will be helpful to read all of Isaiah 47.

Verse 1-3 — I believe Babylon is the world system that in our lifetime has been typified by Wall Street, Madison Avenue, Hollywood, and the increasingly secular and morally bankrupt American lifestyle. Babylon is referred to as the “virgin daughter,” indicating that her walls had never been breached by an enemy. God has judged the wickedness of Babylon and declared that her sin will be uncovered and judged. Babylon has been removed from her throne and made to sit in humility in the dust on the ground like a common person. America is no longer the number one global power; she has been “dethroned” and humiliated.

As I write this, four of our highest ranking intelligence and military leaders are being exposed for their indiscretions and they have embarrassed themselves and America.

Verse 6 — God has let His people/the church be dominated by the spirit of Babylon because of their disobedience.

Verse 8 — This is a warning to the prideful spirit that says, “We are great and nothing can happen to us; we will succeed. After all, we are Americans!” This is a dual warning both to the secular and to the arrogant spirit that is in the American church.

Verse 9 — Indicates that the destruction/humility will come suddenly. Whoever would have thought that our world would be teetering on the brink of a financial meltdown that has not gotten better in the last four years but, instead, has deepened and is now being referred to as a “fiscal cliff”? Whoever would have thought that a late October storm would strike right at the heart of the largest metropolitan area of our nation and cause so much devastation? Hurricane Sandy was a storm that seemed to come out of nowhere and suddenly became “the perfect storm.”

Verse 10 — The wicked thought they could get away with their private displays of financial and material greed. Does this remind anyone of some of the investment scams and the corporate greed that have come to light in the last few years? Blatant almost beyond belief!

Verse 11 — This verse stopped me in my tracks! “Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall on you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you” (NIV).

For decades the unregenerate American way confronting problems both in our nation and around the world has been to spend money to solve the problem or give money to make it go away. Our nation has given hundreds of billions of dollars to unfriendly nations to buy their friendship and they gladly take our money and still hate us and are still unfriendly. Our government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to stimulate the economy with virtually no lasting results.

In the New King James, the phrase in verse 11 is, “You will not be able to put it off.” This is speaking of the calamity/humiliation. In the original language the words you will not be able mean that there is no way to prevail, no hope of overcoming. The phrase put it off means “to cover, to make atonement for.” God is saying, “When I declare judgment, the payment of a ransom, the spending of money to stop it is not an option!”

Could the ransom in verse 11 possibly be referring to efforts to avert the impending disaster of the “fiscal cliff” which is currently in the news? Is what we see coming from our leaders anything more than a display of extreme arrogance that believes that their intelligence, coupled with an obscene use of money, will stave off the judgment of God?

Verse 13 — We are being worn out by all the commentators on broadcast and cable TV and “talk radio” who claim to have the answers to our nation’s needs. None of those who talk and talk can save our nation but they certainly can weary us with all their counsel.

Verse 14 — None of the talking “counselors” will be able to save themselves, let alone the nation, from “the power of the flame,” which is the hand of God’s judgment coming on the nation.

To that arrogant Babylonian spirit, God replies in verse 15, “There is no one to save you.” America is under judgment!

This word does not frighten me and I am not afraid for my wife, my children or my grandchildren. I rest in the faithfulness of the God I love and serve.

No matter what the future brings for us, God’s grace and mercy will be more than sufficient. He will take care of His children!

“We give thanks to you, O God;

   We give thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.

   At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity.
 When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, 

  It is I who keep steady its pillars” (Psalm 75:1-3, ESV).

SURPRISE ATTACK!

A surprise attack took place soon after Paul and his friends were safe on the island of Malta (see Acts 28:3-5). The ship Paul was travelling on to Rome had not survived a terrible storm but all the passengers and crew had made it safely to land. Raging cold and rain plagued the shipwrecked survivors and friendly islanders were providing food and shelter for them. Paul was helping to arrange for their care as they struggled to get dry and stay warm. As he reached down to pick up an armload of firewood, a small, poisonous snake, a viper, popped out from the stack of wood and fastened itself on his hand.

Immediately the legalists, the Pharisees, said, “Oh, oh! This man has done something wrong; he has sin in his life; he is being judged by God.” And then, as spectators, they stood by to watch him suffer and die. Pharisees love to watch people suffer.

Paul’s response to the surprise attack was to walk over to the fire and shake the snake off his hand and into the fire. The startled onlookers watched to see what would happen to Paul but he suffered no ill effects.

What just happened and what does it mean to us?

This was not some random happening nor was it God’s judging Paul for “sin in his life.”  This was a direct attack on Paul, an ambush, meant to try and silence him once and for all. The devil did not want Paul going to Rome. While the enemy did not know what Paul would accomplish in Rome, he was very aware of what Paul had already done and he wanted no more of that. Paul had bludgeoned and severely crippled the enemy through his missionary travels, his teaching, and especially his writings. By this time Paul had already written the book of Romans, the Corinthian letters, the Thessalonian letters and Galatians. The enemy was sick of this and wanted to silence the apostle.

This viper was an emissary of hell sent to ambush and severely hurt or destroy Paul. The apostle knew right away what was happening and how to respond. He knew what Jesus had taught the disciples to do when they were ambushed (see Mark 16:17-18).

Paul did not give in to panic, because he knew he was walking on solid ground in the authority of the Lord. He calmly walked to the fire and shook the snake into the fire and straight back to the place of its origin.

The enemy loves to use “surprise” on God’s people, to come at you when he thinks you are not looking and not ready. He does so to try and gain the upper hand and to disgrace and attempt to destroy God’s work in your life. It was on a rooftop that the devil surprised King David with a spirit of lust and David ended up in adultery. David should not have been there but he was “taken” by the sight of a bathing woman and was captured by lust.

When the viper fastened itself onto Paul’s hand, I am sure there was a moment of surprise. Who wouldn’t be surprised if a snake jumped on you? But Paul immediately understood what was happening. Years earlier he had written to the Corinthians, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The word taken as it is used here means “to seize, to take by fraud, to possess or take by force.” This is the picture of an ambush when suddenly by deception and surprise the enemy tries to overwhelm its victim. But God says, “I have given you the tools to deal with any eventuality; you can handle this, you can triumph!”

And so when the enemy struck, while Paul may have been momentarily surprised, he knew exactly what to do. He did not go to pieces and run screaming into the night. He did not throw himself on the ground and begin to confess sin and cry out for mercy.

Paul knew he was on solid ground with the Lord; he knew that Christ’s death on Calvary had established forever our authority in Him. He knew that the enemy was trying to spoil God’s plan. Deep in his heart he knew what lay ahead, what letters he still had to write, what churches he needed to strengthen, and that God was not finished with him yet. I believe the words of the Lord echoed in Paul’s mind, “They will take up serpents; and if they handle anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them.” I think Paul looked down at the snake fastened on his hand and said to the snake, “I have a surprise for you, too,” and then he shook the snake off his hand and into the fire.

How do you handle surprises?

BACK TO SODOM

God spoke to Abraham and he stepped out in faith, leaving his home and beginning a journey to a land that God would show him (Genesis 12:1). Abraham did as God instructed and took his wife, Sarah, and his nephew Lot with him. Because Abraham followed God, over the next years God blessed both him and Lot and they became rich in livestock, silver and gold (13:2, 5). The blessing of God was so strong on the two of them that they needed to live apart because the land could not support both of them living in close proximity. Abraham allowed Lot to choose where he wanted to live and Lot chose the Jordan Valley and the city of Sodom, even though the men of Sodom were widely known as wicked, great sinners against the Lord (13:13).

Sometime later a group of neighboring kings invaded the Valley of Jordan and Lot and his family was taken captive. When Abraham heard about this, he mobilized his forces and rescued Lot and recovered all his possessions and family.

After his rescue, Lot returned to Sodom. The looming question one has to ask is, “Why would Lot go back to Sodom knowing its reputation for being a place of great evil?” Is it possible that the depravity of Sodom and his acceptance of it had gotten into Lot’s heart and soul and clouded his thinking?

Again, time passed and Abraham had an encounter with three heavenly beings (angels). A part of that encounter pertained to their journey to Sodom to see firsthand if it was as wicked as was thought and to destroy Sodom and all the towns around it (Genesis 18:16-21).

Abraham immediately began to intercede for God’s mercy to be displayed on behalf of any righteous people living in Sodom. After a lengthy and complicated time of intercession, the angel of the Lord left and  two other angels went on to Sodom. They met Lot soon after their arrival and he prevailed upon them to stay in his home.

Very shortly after their arrival in Lot’s home, the men of the city showed up and demanded that the visitors come out to them so that they could violate them sexually. Lot then did something that totally boggles my mind. Lot appealed to the men of the city to not touch the visitors and offered his virgin daughters to the mob for them to abuse in any way they wished. What in the world was going on in this man’s mind?

Before I speak to the issue of what was going on in Lot’s mind, please let me paint this picture with some contemporary understanding. First, Sodom is a type of the corrupted world system and second, Lot is a type of the compromised New Testament believer, a sad picture of the lukewarm Laodician church (Revelation 3:14-22).

So what had entered into Lot’s mind and spirit that caused him to return to the notorious city of Sodom and then act the way he did when his guests were threatened?

The first thing I see is that Lot had found a place of prominence there; he was accepted as an important person, a leader. When the angels arrived in Sodom, they found Lot sitting in the gate of the city (Genesis 19:1). “Sitting in the gate of the city” was reserved for men of authority and prominence and it seems to show that Lot had been accepted there. The sad commentary of the contemporary church is that the more acceptance it has received, the more it has lost its edge in witness and worship. Prominence and acceptance are addictive, constraining and corrupting, and are to be handled with extreme caution.

The second thing I see is that the perversion of the city had corrupted Lot. When Lot saw the visitors coming into the city, he knew they were not safe there and he rightly invited them to his home for the night. When the crowd came demanding the visitors, Lot’s corruption comes out and he offered his daughters instead. No man living for God would ever make such an offer. This is the reaction of a man who had allowed the corruption of the world around him to taint his life and his soul. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

The third thing I see is that Lot liked living in Sodom, he liked what he was doing and what he was involved in. When the angels told Lot what was about to happen and warned that Sodom was about to be destroyed, he did not want to leave — he liked it in Sodom. The angels had to take him by the hand and literally drag him out of the city (19:16). We do not hear much teaching anymore about the Second Coming of Christ, the rapture of the saints. Why is that? Could it be because so many in the church are very happy living in Sodom and are not too happy with the idea of leaving?

I wish Lot’s story ended on a happy note of joyous freedom and deliverance but it doesn’t. Lot’s wife was an unhappy participant in the exodus from Sodom. Even though the angels gave explicit instructions to move out and only look ahead, Lot’s wife did not follow the directions. She looked back and died! Lot and his daughters eventually went to a cave in the mountains to hide and the daughters got their father drunk so they could have sex with him and get pregnant. Out of their disgraceful behavior each daughter gave birth to a son, both of whom became the fathers of two of the neighboring tribes that would attack Israel for centuries to come. The Moabites and the Ammonites were vicious foes of Israel and they were direct descendants of Lot and Abraham. The lesson is that when parents are casually accepting of sinful behavior, the consequences are more violently manifested in their children.

Lot went back to Sodom! He was enamored with the way it fed his senses and catered to his needs and he did not understand the price he would pay to live in Sodom.

THE STING

A few weeks ago I again watched the movie The Sting on the Turner Classic Movie Channel. In the movie, Paul Newman and Robert Redford play con men who set up an elaborate “sting.” One of their friends had been killed and they set up a high stakes con to take away the money and business from the crook who ordered the killing. It’s a fun movie to watch.

In Joshua 9 we see that the leaders of Israel were victims of a high stakes sting. Joshua and the nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan River and were beginning to rampage through the Promised Land, dispossessing the inhabitants as they went. One of the tribes that was about to be “sent packing” was the Gibeonites. The Gibeonite leaders decided that instead of fighting the Jews and getting killed, they would set up an elaborate deception and try to fool the Jews into signing a peace treaty with them. The ruse was to send a delegation to Joshua and pretend that they had come from far away, that they had heard of the great victories God had given the Jews, and they wanted to be the friends of Israel and sign a peace accord. To make the situation look authentic, the delegation dressed in the oldest clothes they could find, saddled their animals with decrepit equipment, and filled their sacks with moldy bread and rotten food. Off they went toward the camp of the Jews and the con was on.

Arriving at the camp of the Jews, the delegation was taken to Joshua. The Gibeonites told Joshua and his leaders that they had come a long away and wanted to be at peace with Israel. Joshua and his crew looked at this bedraggled group with their shabby clothes and worn-out equipment and heard one of them say, “Our equipment, food, and clothes were all new when we left to travel here.”

Joshua and his men bought the con. It says in Joshua 9:14: “The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD.” A peace treaty was signed and the delegation from “faraway” left. Within days Joshua knew that he had been tricked.

We read a story like this, we watch the Newman/Redford movie, and we are amused and entertained. But here is what we have to be aware of. The Gibeonites were con men who pulled a trick on the Jews; however, none of this had to happen. The Jews fell for the ruse entirely because they did not employ their first line of defense—they did not inquire of the Lord.

The spirit of the con is loose in the world today and it is loose in the church. The spirit of the con has brought large segments of the contemporary church into areas of compromise. In the name of cultural relevance, the spirit of the con has called into question the importance of prayer, the relevance of the Word, and the power of worship. The spirit of the con is attempting to strip the Bride of Christ/the church of its identity.

More than once when I have expressed caution about a particular ministry, people have said to me, “But the Bible says that a tree is known by its fruit” (see Matthew12:33). Yes, the Bible does say that, but it does not say that fruit is the only criteria by which we should evaluate the validity of a ministry, a life or a teaching.

The Jews sampled the provisions that the Gibeonites brought with them and said, “This stuff is really old and tastes like camel dung, so that proves they came from a long distance because worn-out clothes, moldy bread and green cheese are the ‘fruit’ of a long journey.” They are also the “fruit” of an elaborate con.

We daily face an enemy whose native tongue is lying (see John 8:44) and whose basic character trait is deception. The focus of his deception is you; he wants to deceive, disrupt and destroy everything that is of God. The enemy will attempt to deceive us into believing that certain actions or beliefs are acceptable because on the surface they appear acceptable. The devil has brought compromise into the church through the naiveté of Biblically illiterate believers.

Our first line of defense is to learn how to inquire of the Lord. Children tend to take things at face value and say childish things such as, “Well, the Bible says we will know them by their fruit and that’s good enough for me.” Or they say, “They were born that way and we must never judge,” and they never inquire of the Lord.

Inquiring of the Lord is not simply asking in prayer; that’s a large part of it, but not the whole.

           1.       What does the Bible say? Is this ministry/life fully in agreement with the Scripture or is it operating in some questionable doctrinal and extra-scriptural practices? “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). There is no activity that we cannot find appropriate scriptural counsel on.

           2.       What are trusted counselors saying? Don’t go to the Internet to see what the chatter is. That’s fun but it cannot be trusted. Go to people whose walk with God you have confidence in and ask them. “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14).

           3.       Most importantly, what is the Lord saying to you about this? Pray over it—and not just a little one-sentence prayer. Pray and fast about it. Get on your knees or on your face and talk to God about it. It may take several prayer sessions over a few days or a week or longer, but you will get an answer (see 1 John 5:14-15).

Inquiring hearts will get to know!

GOD SEES US AS WE CAN BE!

“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” (Judges 6:12). The angel uttered these words and for a moment the earth stopped in its orbit, the wind died, and birds stopped chirping . . . the world went silent and still. This was the angel of heaven talking to the wimp in the hole in the ground and calling him a “mighty man of valor.” All of nature knew that something was going on here, because in the natural Gideon was about as far removed from being a man of valor as one could be.

The year was about 1256 BC and the Midianites were making life miserable for the Jewish nation. In the roughly 200 years since Joshua had led the victorious nation into the Promised Land, Israel had turned from their wholehearted devotion to Jehovah and become stubborn, rebellious and compromised. Israel was given opportunity after opportunity to make things rights and like a pig, they returned to the mud and grime of disobedient living. Out of the desert came a raiding tribe of nomads, the Midianites. They were cruel, relentless raiders so persistent in devastating the Jews that they finally drove them into hiding. The Jews lived in constant fear of the Midianite raiders.

Gideon was in a winepress, in this case essentially a large hole in the ground, trying to thresh enough wheat to feed his family. Threshing by hand requires a little wind so that as the kernels of wheat are separated from the stock, they fall to the ground, and the breeze blows away the chaff. A simple lesson of life is that you do not thresh wheat in a hole in the ground, and that is what Gideon was trying to do. There was no wind down there, threshing is hot work, there is lots of dust and chaff, and Gideon was a mess.

I think when the angel uttered these words to Gideon he had to stifle a laugh, because the scene before him was not that of Davy Crockett at the Alamo or General George Patton charging up his troops for the push into Germany in WWII. It was more like Pee Wee Herman playing in a sandbox. The incongruity of the depiction of Gideon as a “mighty man of valor” and the obvious timidity and fright of the man in the hole in the ground was startling.

When I graduated from college I had no idea where I would fit in God’s kingdom. It seemed like I learned to find where God wanted me to be by listening to the no’s that came from heaven. Several churches extended invitations for us to join their staff but as we prayed, heaven would say, “No, that’s not for you.” To make a long story even longer (I jest), we have always followed the doors that were open. And as the Lord said to go or at least didn’t say no, one thing has led to another and to another and to another.

One of the things I have learned over the years is that it is often easier for others to see your potential than it is for you to see it in yourself. David Wilkerson gave me much encouragement in this area. David saw where my gifts were when I couldn’t see them for myself and graciously moved me into areas of  leadership and administration that I didn’t think I would ever be good at.

When the angel stood on the edge of the hole and looked down at Pee Wee threshing wheat, covered in dust, dirt and sweat, that is not what he saw. Yes, that was what was standing there but what the angel saw by faith was the man God would use to lead Israel out of the pit and into freedom. God didn’t need a John Wayne who had his act so together that he didn’t really need anyone but himself. God wanted a man who had no confidence in his flesh and simply wanted to please the Lord. That was the man the angel saw in the hole.

 God sees us not as we are but as we can be!

When the Apostle Peter first met Jesus, he was a vacillating, impetuous, lying fisherman with little hope for the future. Jesus looked at him and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas (which means Peter)” (John 1:42, ESV). Both names in their original language mean “rock.”

Jesus did not see Peter as he was, He saw his potential and what he could and would become. I do not believe the Lord was saying that Peter would be the rock upon which the church would be built but that it would be built by men and women who, in the natural, did not seem to have the potential to do anything great. Men and women who would make themselves available to God for His service. Peter would be one of those "rocks" upon which would become the foundation of His church.

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29, NIV).